Middle Ages, crusades, against the Stedinger, 1233 / 1234, defeat of Stedinger in the Battle of Altenesch

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Children often tend to follow parents and the parents’ socio-cultural group into whatever religious beliefs that the parents have. In other words, they will become a Catholic if their parents were … or a Hindu or a “whatever else.”

My parents raised my sister and me as kind of like nothings or everything. They were Quakers (Religious Society of Friends), who dedicated their lives to social and environmental service. They weren’t sure about who or what God was, but decided to have high moral. ethical and compassionate standards to bring all life helpfully forward in the best ways possible. They also were pacifists.

They exposed us children to all religions and told us that we should honor the beliefs of everyone who is trying to improve the world given their particular faith beliefs by which they were raised. So I had great fun as a child exploring a comparative religious background and learning about the commonality of humanity exploring God(s) through their own particular lens. So I had a great time at Jewish and Hindu temples, mosques, various Christian churches, Buddhist sites and more as a child.

My own grandfather used to state that the fingers on the hand are like the different religions all emanating from the hand — the palm that was god. He was nondiscriminatory, too.

Probably lots of people would find Quakers to be a weirdo-bunch. The Quakers include die-hard Christian fundamentalists, agnostics, atheists, Buddhist-Jewish leaning sorts and other combinations. Yet, they all feel united. So I guess that some of the uniting for the group comes from wanting to serve, largely being pacifists (although not all) and coming together to create a spiritual union across the world.

Accordingly, my sister and I raised our children to be of the same ilk — nonjudgmental and dedicated to trying to help bring life forward in positive, piously undefined ways. They, accordingly, help humanity and the natural world go forward in many diverse ways.

Our attitudes include that we support our friends, who think that Jesus is their savior and who think that they will wind up in a place called Heaven sitting at the feet of some elderly male God with a beard while angels with harps and flutes having wings like swans will fly around them making sweet music. Who am I to take away such a fanciful view?

Indeed, we think always that If you can’t provide something good, at least do no harm. So we keep our mouths shut, act supportive and just smile when they go onward in describing their Jesus rapture. How mean of us were we to destroy possibly their main delight in life whether involving Jesus or any other idea that they hold as true as a mainstay of their imaginative belief-system.

As a friend of mine, a Lutheran (Christian) deacon shared with me: One woman is enough to handle … and I, myself, would have no idea as to the way to cope were I to have seventy-two virgin husbands. So many spouses seems like a nightmare and a torment.

Whatever fanciful views exist for people, they were born into it from their parents’ views or gravitated to it out of some inner psychological need. So I’m happy for anyone if s/he finds some relief from tribulations in life, spiritual sustenance and joy using whatever religious beliefs serve based on one’s trained/taught frame of reference.

My elderly friend, Betty, had parts of her spine fused together. Her physical pain is immense day by day. So she awakes each day and asks Jesus to help her through the day. Then she starts to read the Bible to lift up her spirits despite her pain, What an awful, immoral person I would be if I were to tell her that this vision that she has of Jesus and God helping her through the day is nonsense.

The same sort of hypothetical rejection from me goes for cow worshippers despite that cow worship is considered a big “no-no” sin according to Judeo-Christian beliefs:

According to the Bible, the golden calf (עֵגֶּל הַזָהָב ‘ēggel hazāhāv) was an idol (a cult image) made by the Israelites during Moses’ absence, when he went up to Mount Sinai. In Hebrew, the incident is known as ḥēṭ’ ha’ēggel (חֵטְא הַעֵגֶּל) or “The Sin of the Calf“.

Jun 28, 2017 – Many Hindus worship the cow as sacred to their religion. … Twenty-eight Indians – 24 of them Muslims – have been killed and 124 injured since 2010 … against mob violence at Jantar Mantar, Delhi. pic.twitter.com/4hRkbIAvK8.

The killing in the name of religion (regardless of which religion) has got to disappear. It’s sheer madness. … This is just like the Crusades:

Harrowing images show bodies piled up at the scene of the horrific attack in Nice

Instead, let’s just try to be supportive of each other regardless of religious proclivity. Yes, let’s be like this:

I have no problem with any particular religion. Murder and hatred based on religious choices, though, have to disappear. There is no place for it in our world and if I have to stand up to protect the life of anyone from another religious belief system from mine and shield his or her life with mine, I’d do it, including these singing people in the video.

Do you think that I’d care one whit whether you want to believe an old man guy in the sky exists as the supreme leader, a cow, a blue god with multiple arms, an elephant god, an Allah god or whatever else drives your vision of life? No, I do not, but I’ll tell you this: I would defend your life with mine for your right to believe the visions (varying from mine) that you hold if you were being physically attacked for them.

Elippathayam (The Rat Trap) is a 1981 Malayalam film written and directed by Adoor Gopalakrishnan. It tells the story of a man trapped within himself unable to understand the changes taking place around him. It seems Indian Cinema also is caught in rat trap. No, it would be a bit flattering for Indian Cinema to use the rat trap metaphor.[Read More…]

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